How Do You Drill Hardened Steel?

[John Kane]

Frist off, this is an amazing forum and the amount of information here is just incredible.

I already did the required search and I couldn't find anything on this topic so I'm boldly starting my first thread. Wish me luck...

The short story is I needed to "dimple" my slide release to prevent it from engaging. I tried every drill bit I had and none of them even scratched it! So how do you drill hardened steel? I used that tiny metal ball thing in my dremel kit and it worked really well, maybe better than a drill but that still left me with the question of how do I drill hard steel in the future?

The long story is my slide was engaging randomly so I started searching the forums. I trimmed all the material off the slide stop and magazine followers I could but still had the problem. Kept searching threads and turns out bullets can somehow engage the slide stop? I would never had believed it but the fix was to dimple the back of the slide stop and that seemed to have fixed it.

Thanks for your help!

John

PS, I put this in the beginner forum as I felt that was the safest place. If I should be in the gunsmithing or somewhere else please let me know.

Edited March 25, 2006 by John Kane

[Gary Johnson]

Welcome to the forums John.

You're right about this place. It's one of those great one-stop-shopping web sites where you can find everything you want to know about a subject in one convenient location.

To your question. Most metals used in slide stops can be drilled with carbide bits.

Now my question. What kind of gun? I don't recall hearing about a gun that had problems with the slide stop engaging on its own.

Have you checked to see if your thumb is wandering toward the stop while you shoot?

[John Kane]

Now my question. What kind of gun? I don't recall hearing about a gun that had problems with the slide stop engaging on its own.

Have you checked to see if your thumb is wandering toward the stop while you shoot?

Thanks for the info! The pistol is essentially an STI Edge. I don't know, maybe my thumb was the culperit. That makes more sense than anything else but my thumb is far enough past the slide stop that I don't see how that could happen either. The detent seems to have fixed it though. I hope!

Thanks again!

John

[Loves2Shoot]

Your not the first, or the last. All my guns have detents

[Dan Carey]

You might try a Dremel tool with a pointed rotory stone.

[epj]

Frist off, this is an amazing forum and the amount of information here is just incredible.

I already did the required search and I couldn't find anything on this topic so I'm boldly starting my first thread. Wish me luck...

The short story is I needed to "dimple" my slide release to prevent it from engaging. I tried every drill bit I had and none of them even scratched it! So how do you drill hardened steel? I used that tiny metal ball thing in my dremel kit and it worked really well, maybe better than a drill but that still left me with the question of how do I drill hard steel in the future?

The long story is my slide was engaging randomly so I started searching the forums. I trimmed all the material off the slide stop and magazine followers I could but still had the problem. Kept searching threads and turns out bullets can somehow engage the slide stop? I would never had believed it but the fix was to dimple the back of the slide stop and that seemed to have fixed it.

Thanks for your help!

Just in general, to drill hard steel you will need a carbide drill. In addition, you need a tool steel center punch to dimple the metal so the drill will drill where it's supposed to. The next item is some cutting oil so you don't burn the drill bit. Real cutting oil is usually animal based. However, if it's a small job, any sort of oil will usually do.

John

PS, I put this in the beginner forum as I felt that was the safest place. If I should be in the gunsmithing or somewhere else please let me know.

[jmorris]

You can disenable the slide stop completely with out drilling; just trim the followers in your magazine. If you’re set on changing a fitted part, I would suggest getting an extra to modify instead of the original.

[BPiatt]

if your safety has a dimple already, then you can change the radius of the plunger that contacts it. Put it in your handrill and hit it with a file. Make it pointier to catch the dimple more.

[cautery]

As stated above... To do the job properly is going to require a carbide tool... period. A QUALITY carbide drill/tool will be more expensive, but will svae a ton of frustration. Proper cutting fluid (there are different fluids required based on the material you plan to cut).

Additionally, what most people don't know/realize is that cutting speed and feed rate are critical to getting good results...

I'm not familiar with the specific modification at issue, because I am just getting stsrted in the 1911/2011 world, but machining is machining for the most part...

Some other things that will make the process work better are:

1) proper machine: You need a mill/drill or AT LEAST a quality drill press. Trying to achieve precision with a hand drill, is simply an exercise in low odds luck... I would never put a hand drill to a high dollar part or ANY job requiring precision.

2) Even with the right machine and the right tool, you really should have the proper fixture to hold the object to be machined in the proper orientation to the tool.... rigidly. A proper fixture, a sharp tool, and a good machine, setup to begin the cut with minimal tool travel prior to engagement AND at the right speed AND with constant lubrication will produce the best results...